


In Harry's Pocket

by orphan_account



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Action/Adventure, Fluff, Friendship, Post-Hogwarts, Romance, The Quidditch Pitch: Leaving Feast
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-07-31
Updated: 2006-07-31
Packaged: 2018-10-26 16:04:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10789956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Harry's captured and Ron becomes an Animagus to save him.





	In Harry's Pocket

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Annie, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [The Quidditch Pitch](http://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Quidditch_Pitch), which went offline in 2015 when the hosting expired, at a time I was not able to renew it. I contacted Open Doors, hoping to preserve the archive using an old backup, and began importing these works as an Open Doors-approved project in April 2017. Open Doors e-mailed all authors about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact us using the e-mail address on [The Quidditch Pitch collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/thequidditchpitch/profile).

  
Author's notes: [](http://crystallekil.livejournal.com/profile)[**crystallekil**](http://crystallekil.livejournal.com/)  
 **A/N:** A gift for [](http://shocolate.livejournal.com/profile)[**shocolate**](http://shocolate.livejournal.com/) for allowing me to turn into a mouse and live in Ron's pocket while she was away. I took very good care of him. Thank you, [](http://shocolate.livejournal.com/profile)[](http://shocolate.livejournal.com/)**shocolate**  


* * *

Harry lost count of the days after ninety-three. He had scratched off small lines in the crumbling cement wall with a pebble – fours marks for four days; a slash through them for the fifth - until the day when he didn't have the energy to care, having been forced to survive on only a bowl of tasteless porridge and a glass of cloudy water a day. That day turned into another and another. Soon it was hard to tell how long he had been there as the edges of day and night bled into each other, leaving him with what felt like one infinite day.

They came for him soon after he lost the energy and the will to even move, yanking him by the arm from the thin, filthy mattress lying on the floor. He thought his capture was for revenge. He was so wrong. They wanted to break him, strip away his world, and shroud him in misery, so that they could rebuild him feeling nothing except hate. They were followers without a leader, believing Harry, who had defeated the most powerful wizard in history, had to be the best one for the job.

Harry would finally recover from one session and they'd be back again. Sometimes it was emotional abuse, telling him in great detail how they had killed everyone he cared about and now he was alone. The other times it was physical and they would throw Harry back into his cell covered in boils, or burns, or with aching bones that had been broken and healed while the sound of the cracking was still ringing in his ears just so that they could break them again the next time. They were waiting for his pain and anger to drive him to do something extraordinarily powerful.

Back in his cell, Harry called on his memories to restore his emotional state; strong memories which blurred the lines between fantasy and reality, leaving Harry delirious and holding lengthy conversations with both the living and the dead, none of whom could have possibly been there.

He told them all the same thing. "Ron will save me."

~~~

The cell door slammed, the click of the lock echoing in his ears. Harry dragged his body towards the mattress until his head was resting on it. Too exhausted to move any further, Harry passed out on his arm.

He awoke to a squeaking sound and bolted upright. There had been a few rats in and out of the room, but most of them were more afraid of him than he was of them and had scurried off when they realized the room was inhabited.

When his eyes adjusted to the faint light filtering in through the dirt-encrusted window high on the wall beyond his reach, he saw a small wood mouse staring at him from the mattress.

His sudden burst of adrenaline depleted, Harry sunk back down on the mattress, assuming the mouse would get scared and run away. Instead, it maneuvered itself directly in front of his face and squeaked again.

"Per –" Harry coughed his throat dry and painful from screaming. "Persistent, aren't you?"

Intending to push it through the cell doors and send it on its way, Harry picked it up by the tail, freezing immediately at the sight of a tuft of red hair sticking up through the brown fur on the top of its head. Upon closer inspection, he saw a dusting of dark brown spots over the bridge of its tiny nose and cheeks.

Thinking he had completely gone mental, he dropped it back on the mattress and shut his eyes.

When he opened them again, the mouse with the huge blue eyes was still there.

He blinked at it.

It blinked back.

"Ron?"

The mouse nodded.

~~~

Arms lurching forward and back again, fingers clenching and unclenching, Harry had thought he knew torture, but this was something more. Hs instincts told him to touch Ron, to hug him; he had been craving it more than the food he was denied for the past few months. Finally, his hands settled on the bed, on each side of the mouse who was his best friend and lover.

A million things ran through his mind - _He's not dead! I'm not dead! Am I dreaming?_ \- yet he simply said, "You did it. Look at you."

The mouse's whiskers and nose twitched frantically and Harry's eyes filled with tears, blurring his vision and making the bridge of his nose burn.

They had been training together to become Animagi for over a year - or had it been two years now?

"Oh, fuck, Ron," Harry said, crawling completely on the mattress. "How long have I been here?"

Squeaking, Ron ran up Harry's chest and settled in the center, blinking and twitching, blinking and twitching.

"I don't know what you want."

Ron's mouse eyes, already large, widened and he just stared at Harry.

Frustrated, Harry shook his head. "I don't –"

Ron moved closer, his mouth moving but no sound came out.

"Oh… Legilimency." Harry's lips cracked as he smiled.

As he licked his lips, the coppery taste of blood filled his mouth, intensified by his lack of tasting anything but bland porridge for months.

Harry gently pet Ron's head with his index finger. "Bloody brilliant."

When his insides started to spin like the pictures and words swirling around in his head, he stopped and closed his eyes, trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together.

Remus, Ron, and Hermione had looked for him for six months though everyone else had assumed that he was dead, which was what Harry had suspected all along. And now that they had found him, they were getting the Order back together to save him and sending Ron in to scout out the layout of the place and let Harry know that they were coming.

Harry began stroking Ron again, trailing his finger from his nose down to his tail. "You never believed I was dead."

Ron's tiny body shuddered in response.

"Of course… you didn't."

Flashes of white in the corner of Harry's eyes and the nausea feeling yanking at the center of his stomach warned him what was about to happen.

"Ron…" he said weakly. _'Ron's going to save me,'_ he thought before slipping into unconsciousness.

 

~~~

The empty cell Harry woke up to caused him to assume that he had been hysterical and hallucinating.

His daily _meal_ had been placed just inside the bars and he knee-walked over to it. A faint scratching sound made him pause and his head jerked from side to side looking for the sound.

A small brown mouse was scurrying along the wall towards him.

"I have gone mad," Harry said quietly, his heart feeling like it was about to burst.  
He put the bowl of porridge down and placed his palm upward on the floor so Ron could crawl onto it.

"I thought you were a figment of my imagination," said Harry softy.

Ron's cheeks seemed to be puffed out and before Harry could ask, Ron spit six seeds into Harry's hand.

Harry raised his eyebrows. "Interesting gift, Ron. My wand would've been much more fitting."

Looking quite agitated, Ron scrunched up his nose and his whiskers shot straight out.

He pushed the seeds towards Harry with his nose.

"What? You want me to – these are important… are these vitamins?"

Gazing intently into Harry's eyes, Ron allowed Harry to find out what he needed to know.

The Order was back with Ron in charge and they had a plan.

The seeds were indeed supplements to give Harry his strength back. Ron was afraid that the Death Eater's - ' _How many, Harry? Tell me how many!_ ' – would kill him as soon as the Order attacked.

Ron stressed that they needed Harry to be ready when they came to break him free.

_'I'll bring you your wand right before, so you can fight them off.'_

It was going to take days – _A week.. No more I promise!_ \- to plan.

"There are at least eight," Harry said, picturing the various masked faces that surrounded him during his brainwashing. "Ron, please, sooner… I ca-can't." Harry's voice cracked. "It gets worse each time."

_'I'll try. Sooner. I promise - I miss you so much… You're stronger than them.'_

Harry worked up some saliva and popped the seeds into his mouth, swallowing them. In an instant he felt better, more energized, yet still not completely healthy.

_'I have to go. Planning to do. Be back tomorrow…'_

Harry let Ron down gently and Ron scuttled off through the bars, pausing when heavy footsteps echoed through the hallway.

Ron hesitated, turning in circles, and Harry waved frantically, mouthing _go_ as fear seized him, not only for himself, but for Ron. What if Ron was killed in this form? Someone could step on him or an owl could eat him (how many times had he seen Hedwig come back with a mouse just like Ron in her talons?).

Sitting on the floor, Harry looked up as the feet drew closer.

This time when the Death Eater reached in to grab him, Harry pushed his hand away, got up, and walked out of the cell, looking at the dark corner where a little brown wood mouse watched intently.

~~~

Harry awoke sitting on the dirt floor with his back resting against the wall. It always took a few seconds for him to remember that he wasn't waking up in his bed with Ron's warm body next to him.

He rubbed the crust from his eye and flexed his fingers to get some feeling in them, freezing when he felt something stir against his chest. Looking down, he saw a lump in his pocket. He opened the pocket and smiled when he saw Ron crawled up inside, sleeping.

Tenderly, he stroked Ron's fur until Ron stirred and looked up at him.

"Morning," Harry whispered. "Looks like I was out of it for awhile."

Harry picked Ron up by his tail, hoping it didn't hurt, and placed him in his hand. Immediately, Ron opened his mouth and pushed out more seeds.

After Harry swallowed them, he locked eyes with Ron. It didn't take him long to learn that the plans to rescue Harry had been escalated. After seeing Harry carted off to be tortured, Ron had returned back to Order headquarters and redesigned the plan.

They were coming for him tomorrow.

Ron put what looked like another seed in Harry's hand, but Harry knew that it wasn't.

Placing Ron on his shoulder, so he'd have both hands free, Harry placed an index finger on it and said, "Finite Incantatem," and his wand expanded in his hand.

Ron squealed in his ear.

"I know," Harry said seriously. "I won't use it until I know you're here."

A cold nose nudged his cheek.

"I'll be ready. And waiting for you."

~~~

Harry paced the cell all night, waiting. He counted the number of paces from one wall to the other. Eight wide and twelve long. He made a tower out of pebbles. And when he had knocked it down for the fifth time and started over again, he heard the first explosion. In the blink of an eye, he had his wand out and ready.

Crouching down low in the darkest corner of the room, he waited, finding out soon that Ron had been right.

"They found us!" Harry heard a voice shout. "Kill him! Don't let them get him!"

Footsteps rushed towards his cell. There were more than one, but Harry was ready.  
It happened so quickly that Harry didn't even think about what he was doing and went purely by instinct.

Flashes of red and blue lit up the cell. Harry dodged spells as fast as his own shot out of his wand. The sounds of yelling in his cell mingled with the ones from above.  
Two bodies hit the floor with a thud. Smoke and dust filled the room and Harry tried in vain to peer through it and see where they had landed.

The shouting and explosions stopped.

More footsteps pounded towards him.

"He's down here!"

"Ron!" Harry shouted.

Suddenly the room was bathed in light and Ron stood in the cell moving towards Harry, stepping over the petrified body of a Death Eater on his way.

Harry lowered his wand and fell forward into Ron's arms.

~~~

The first thing he thought when he opened his eyes was that Ron had painted their bedroom white, at least until the smell that could only be found in a hospital overwhelmed him.

As he rolled over, he saw Ron asleep in a chair next to his bed. Harry took a moment to take in the sight that had been the focus of every dream he had while lying in that cell.

Harry decided not to wake him, happy to just lie there and watch Ron sleep. But his laugh when Ron twitched his nose just like a mouse woke Ron and his eyes shot open.

"Harry!" Ron dragged his chair closer to Harry's bed. "Harry," he said again, softer.

"How long have I –"

"Just a day. The Healers said you're going to be fine. No permanent damage."

Harry nodded. "That's good."

"Very good," Ron said, taking Harry's hand and kissing the knuckles. "I…"

"I know." And he did _know_. Both men of action, words were never needed between them.

"Hermione and Remus just left," Ron explained. "They stayed all night. My Mum came by and made them go with her to the Burrow to eat and rest."

"They were there?"

"Yeah. Tonks, Mad-eye, Kingsley, and a few of the younger Aurors too." Ron grinned. "Remus and Hermione were brilliant. They –"

"You were brilliant, Ron!" Harry interrupted. "A mouse! I can't believe it. You finished your training and turned into a mouse." Shaking his head, he added, "I don't see the connection."

Ron shrugged. "Poor as a church mouse, I reckon."

"No – no I doubt that's why."

"Hermione thinks it's because I wanted nothing more than to see you and so I turned into a form that would help me get to you."

Harry beamed at him. "Smart girl, that Hermione."  



End file.
